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HOW IS HOUSING DIFFERENT?  A lot of wealth tied up in housing; value of US housing stock $11 trillion in 2000  Durable: provides services over years  Deterioration rate depends on maintenance and repair decisions  Costly Moving: Households adjust their housing consumption when gap between ideal and actual housing consumption is large enough

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RISE OF THE SUBURB: WHY?  Demographic changes after WWII  Increase in household savings; limited goods to buy and available over paying jobs  Soldiers Came Home, increase in family size; baby boomers  76 Million births between 1946 to 1964  Family size increased reaching 3.77 children per family  This generation is about to start retiring, which will effect current and future housing policy

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 What is the extent of segregation in US metropolitan areas?  To what extent is segregation driven by underlying discriminatory practices?  How did it change over time?  What role did housing policies play?  Why is an integrated society more desirable?  Will segregation lead to the death of cities? SEGREGATION

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 The practice of denying, or increasing the cost of loans and mortgages, to residents in racial neighborhoods  Red areas on the map indicated less secure areas for banks to invest in.  Many minority groups in cities were ineligible to receive financing.  The maps were based on assumptions about the community, not individuals

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 The Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 were both enacted in an effort to combat this practice

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HANSBERRY VS LEE  Hansberry’s father was a wealthy, real estate broker in segregated Chicago  In 1937, her father purchased a home in the Washington Park Subdivision  Washington Park had a restrictive covenant that said no black person could live in or own a home in the subdivision  Washington Park fought Hansberry and they went to court in 1937

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 Judge orders the Hansberry’s eviction on August 19, 1938  Hansberry appeals to the Supreme Court of Illinois  The case of Hansberry, et al vs. Lee, et al goes all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States on October 25, 1940  The U.S. Supreme Court deems restrictive covenants non-existent HANSBERRY VS LEE

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 Segregation of African Americans is higher than that of any other group.  The great migration of African Americans from the rural south to the northeast and Midwest  By 1970 the population of African Americans reached 4 million and segregation increased  Moved into predominantly African American neighborhoods  Price premium in African American neighborhoods until 1970 HISTORY OF RACIAL SEGREGATION

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 Realtors often exploited the price difference using “Block busting”  Studies from 1970 tend to find little evidence of price premium in African American neighborhoods  Gradual improvements for minorities during the last few decades HISTORY OF RACIAL SEGREGATION

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 Cutler, Glaeser and Vigdor (1999) investigate the causes of white black segregation:  Ghettos as an adjustment mechanism for migrants. Since 1970 black migrants from the South are 10 percent more likely to belong to an all-black church than native Northern blacks, and are 24 percent more likely to prefer a segregated neighborhood  Collective action racism : such as restrictive covenants, racial zoning, policy instruments, and threats of violence which were widespread before 1960. The authors find a much higher use of restrictive real estate covenants in cities that are more segregated.  Decentralized racism : in which whites simply pay more to live in areas with other whites; a privilege that is worth more to whites than to blacks. This explains the persistent segregation we experience today decades after equal housing laws were enacted. THE RISE AND DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN GHETTO

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A MODEL OF NEIGHBORHOOD CHOICE  Two neighborhoods differ in their income mixes  All households prefer high income neighborhoods  Households compete by bidding for land and housing  Model setup  Two neighborhoods, each with 100 lots  Two income groups (high and low), each with 100 households  Only difference between neighborhoods is income mix.

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A MODEL OF NEIGHBORHOOD CHOICE Neighborhood ANeighborhood B Because the neighborhoods have an identical mix of high and low income households, rent in A=rent in B High income Low income

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RENT PREMIUM  Rent premium for A=rent in A- rent in B, is defined as the extra amount of rent a household is willing to pay for neighborhood A,  Rent premium with 50-50 mix will be zero since both neighborhoods are identical.  Rent premium increases with the number of high income households

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PREMIUM CURVES Point j: Premium of low- income household (55 high, 45 low) = $5 The premium curve for the high income household is higher than that of the low income household Point k: Premium of high- income household (55 high, 45 low) = $8

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UNSTABLE EQUILIBRIUM Point i is an integrated equilibrium since households pay the same amount for each neighborhood Equilibrium requires that everyone in the same neighborhood pay the same rent. Point i is unstable equilibrium since a movement of population will generate a different equilibrium

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SEGREGATED EQUILIBRIUM High income households outbid low income households so that they displace low income households in area A The premium for the high income is higher than that for the low income household. This increases the mix of high income households moving away from point i Point s is the new equilibrium with segregated neighborhoods. Self Reinforcing Effects lead to extreme outcomes

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High income Low income SEGREGATED EQUILIBRIUM Neighborhood ANeighborhood B All high income households locate in one neighborhood

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Integrated Equilibrium We get a stable integrated equilibrium if the premium curve for the low income households is steeper than that of the high income households

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HOUSING POLICY  Low-Income Housing Policy: $30 billion per year Supply side policies: Public housing, subsidized private housing, low income housing tax credits Demand side policies: vouchers  Middle and High income housing: $66 billion per year to subsidize home ownership

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HOUSING AND POVERTY  “Having a safe, stable place allows people to work on their other problems. You can’t improve your life if you’re living out of a shelter, checking in and out every day, sleeping with bedbugs, having your things stolen, and possibly experiencing sexual or physical violence—those aren’t optimal conditions for finding and keeping a job or stabilizing mental illness. Recent evidence from Seattle shows that people who move from the street into stable housing do improve their lives—for example, they may start drinking less.” (The Urban Institute,2009)

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LOW INCOME HOUSING POLICY I. PUBLIC HOUSING  The government acts as a supplier of low income housing  About 1.3 million households  The budgetary cost about $7 billion in subsidies and maintenance  Managed by local housing authorities  Rent no greater than 30% of recipient income

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PUBLIC HOUSING AND RECIPIENT WELFARE  Evaluate the efficiency of public housing programs: Can the same welfare level be achieved at a lower cost?  Assumptions and numbers  Income = $800  housing price = $1 per unit of service  Rent on public housing = 30% of income

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WITHOUT PUBLIC HOUSING Without public housing:  Point i maximizes initial utility: (h = 300; A = $500) Quality of Housing All Other Goods 800 i 300 500 Indifference curves of a typical household Budget line

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PUBLIC HOUSING AN OPTION The government offers housing service=540 at a price equal to 30% of income  Rent is 30% of income = 0.3* 800=$240  A = $800 - $240 = 560  Public housing adds point j to budget set  Is the consumer better off? Higher utility: U1 > U0 Quality of Housing All Other Goods 800 i 300 500 j 540 560 U1U1 U0U0

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VALUE OF PUBLIC HOUSING TO RECIPIENT  An alternative: a cash transfer  How much money would make him indifferent to the public housing?  Income Cash transfer of $200 gets recipient to U1  Same utility level but less housing (360) and more other ($700)  Subsidy = $300 = $540 (market value of 540-unit dwelling) - $240 rent  Value to recipient ( $200) is 2/3 of subsidy, consistent with studies Quality of Housing All Other Goods 800 i 300 500 j 540 560 U1 1000 360 640 k U0

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 Facts:  Located in neighborhoods with low median incomes, disproportionate share of minorities  Mostly female headed households  High school dropout rates and low student achievement  Often its location does not offer access to public transportation or other city resources  High crime rates PUBLIC HOUSING FACTS

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 Dispersal policies:  1960s part of the fair housing movement aimed at addressing racial discrimination  1990s focused on de concentrating poverty in American cities  Attempts to demolish public housing and adopt alternative policies have shown mixed results:  Relocating the poor does not reduce crime but moves it around  Suburban resistance  Resistance by low income groups SOLUTIONS

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MIDDLE AND HIGH INCOME HOUSING POLICY: MORTGAGE SUBSIDY  Tax breaks to homeowners: deduct mortgage interest payment from gross income when paying income taxes  Benefit increases with income

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 CRA was passed in 1977 as a result of national pressure to address the deteriorating conditions of American cities—particularly lower-income and minority neighborhoods shortages of credit available to low- and moderate- income neighborhoods THE COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT

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 In 1996, HUD set a goal for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that at least 42% of the mortgages they purchase be issued to borrowers whose household income was below the median in their area. This target was increased to 50% in 2000 and 52% in 2005  The Act encouraged lending to subprime borrowers. Amendments to the CRA in the mid-1990s, raised the amount of mortgages issued to otherwise unqualified low-income borrowers COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT

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 Sub-prime or non prime  Lending to people who otherwise would have no access to credit markets  Approximately 80% of U.S. mortgages issued to subprime borrowers were adjustable rate mortgages  Availability of finance to subprime borrowers and often with no down payment  The low short-term interest rates made adjustable rate loans with low down payments highly attractive. SUBPRIME LENDING

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 Subprime loans more likely to result in foreclosure  In 2006, % African American who received subprime loans was 3 times that of whites  Been, Ellen, and Madar (2008) show that people are more likely to get subprime loans if they live in racially segregated communities  Segregation increases poverty  Segregation limits access to financial information  Segregation makes neighborhoods more prone to redlining SUBPRIME LENDING

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FROM THE HOUSING BUBBLE TO THE RECESSION Burst of the Housing Bubble Homeowners defaulting on mortgages Sudden reduction in assets of financial institutions resulting in their failure Loss of wealth and reduction in investments due to the credit crunch which results in a recession

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